Crew Still Seeking TV Deal

Wednesday

Feb 5, 2014 at 12:01 AMFeb 5, 2014 at 2:26 PM

Two networks have expressed interest in acquiring television rights for the Crew for the 2014 season and beyond, sources have told The Dispatch.

The Crew signed a two-year deal with Fox Sports Ohio in February, 2012, but appears to also be fielding interest from Time Warner Cable Sports Channel this time. A meeting is scheduled to take place today at Fox Sports Ohio to discuss the situation, The Dispatch has learned.

Two networks have expressed interest in acquiring television rights for the Crew for the 2014 season and beyond, sources have told The Dispatch.

The Crew signed a two-year deal with Fox Sports Ohio in February, 2012, but appears to also be fielding interest from Time Warner Cable Sports Channel this time. A meeting is scheduled to take place today at Fox Sports Ohio to discuss the situation, The Dispatch has learned.

Representatives from Fox Sports Ohio and Time Warner Sports did not return requests for comment.

When the 2014 Crew schedule was announced Nov. 25, it made no mention of Fox Sports Ohio or any television partner, saying additional regional broadcast and radio details would be announced at a later date. Since then, the club has inked a deal with WZOH-FM (95.5) to carry the team's games this season.

A Crew spokesperson declined to comment other than to confirm that talks to finalize a new television deal are ongoing.

The Crew partnered with Fox Sports Ohio prior to the 2013 season and experienced some early growing pains. Not all games were broadcast in true high definition, drawing the ire of fans and leading Crew president Mark McCullers to say it was his only complaint about the relationship.

"I'm extremely happy with it, especially since (prior broadcast partner) ONN has decided to shutter," he said in August, 2012. "That would've been difficult. Right now I'm satisfied. Are there things we want to work on to get better and help each other? Yeah, but I think that's part of the process of building the relationship. They're great to work with. I think we're going to continue to improve."

The quality of the high-definition broadcasts did improve in 2013, and the deal meant that Crew games were occasionally shown in out-of-state markets across the region like Detroit.

"I thought it was good," McCullers said last February of the first year of the deal. "I think it's going to be better this year for a lot of reasons. I think we learned a lot working with each other last year. I think we learned where we can improve. I think it's going to be better this year and I'm glad that all of our games are going to be in HD this season."

When the deal was announced, Fox Sports Ohio vice president of programming and production Tom Farmer said general manager Henry Ford was practically giddy about the deal.

"Henry pushed it and he pushed really, really hard because we had an agreement where we had done a few games with the Crew in our history," Farmer said in February, 2012. " It was just simply time to bring something of a professional nature here in Ohio and to have soccer right here in our middle, it was simply time. It was past time, quite honestly. It just made all the sense in the world. I think I've used the word thrilled 50 times this morning. We are thrilled to partner with the Columbus Crew. This facility is outstanding.